The gimps are coming!!

[cannongal]

I think taxpayer money is well spent helping veterans who come home with disabilities. Spending money to make sure that Jr. in a wheelchair can somehow play baseball with all the other kids seems like a reach that we can't afford.

I used to work in the Sped Ed Dept of a High School. Out of 3,000 there were 15 in wheel chairs. 13 out of the 15 were vegetative, they drooled all day, they had to be lifted out of the chair and stretched, they had to be tube fed. They watched tele-tubbies at school all day. These types of kids should be in a nursing home, not at school where specialized equipment had to be bought for each child (per state law, via taxpayer money).

The State law also said these kids were entitled to participate in sports-do you know who actually participated? The teachers aides. If it was Basketball, 1 aide would run around the court with the kid in the wheelchair, while the other aid would shoot baskets, same with art, music, or any other subject that took the kids away from Tele-tubbies.

What a ridiculous waste of money and manpower.

[Duchess]

I don't agree with a PC world the way so many do.

[Teacher]

One of my students was a little girl confined to a wheelchair. The ONLY thing she could do was say "Aaaaaa" and "Eeeeee" in a loud voice - constantly. She had a full-time aide who showed her pictures in a picture book which she never looked at - she was always looking at me in the front of the classroom. As far as education nothing was or could be absorbed. Really sad.

Like Cannongal said during Special Olympics, her aide would just wheel her around and do whatever the little girl was supposed to be doing.

[Duchess]

Are the people who want this stuff for challenged kids aware of their reality? I ask because it doesn't appear as if they do.

[Sphincter Cop]

Are the people who want this stuff for challenged kids aware of their reality? I ask because it doesn't appear as if they do.

They are probably low level gimps......

[username]

I used to work in the Sped Ed Dept of a High School. Out of 3,000 there were 15 in wheel chairs. 13 out of the 15 were vegetative, they drooled all day, they had to be lifted out of the chair and stretched, they had to be tube fed. They watched tele-tubbies at school all day. These types of kids should be in a nursing home, not at school where specialized equipment had to be bought for each child (per state law, via taxpayer money).

The State law also said these kids were entitled to participate in sports-do you know who actually participated? The teachers aides. If it was Basketball, 1 aide would run around the court with the kid in the wheelchair, while the other aid would shoot baskets, same with art, music, or any other subject that took the kids away from Tele-tubbies.

What a ridiculous waste of money and manpower.

Thank you for your perspective on the subject!



Meanwhile, there was an article in the paper today titled "Days of small K-3 classes look done for in state". Most schools have moved from 20 to 30 kids in those classes. Some schools are applying for exemptions and they have upwards of 38 kids in a kindergarten class. Insane.

[username]

One of my students was a little girl confined to a wheelchair. The ONLY thing she could do was say "Aaaaaa" and "Eeeeee" in a loud voice - constantly. She had a full-time aide who showed her pictures in a picture book which she never looked at - she was always looking at me in the front of the classroom. As far as education nothing was or could be absorbed. Really sad.

Like Cannongal said during Special Olympics, her aide would just wheel her around and do whatever the little girl was supposed to be doing.

I think the whole idea of mainstreaming some special needs students has gone wrong. I don't exactly know how it should be structured but I think there's a better way financially and for the benefit of all the kids to handle it.

[HairOfTheDog]

If I had a disabled child in a public school with funding and a program for special education, I'd be damned pissed if my child was left to sit around watching Tele-tubbies all day.

There are all kinds of free or low cost travel, art, and basic education programs set to music that could at least introduce the children to something beyond little purple things running about. If Tele-tubbies (or if that's being used as just an example, its equivalent) was their favorite, it could be part of the routine. But, no matter how disabled the students, something like that should not be the primary repetitive focus of a legitimate special education program.

I do agree that children with that level of physical disability don't belong on a sports court/field. That's an ignorant requirement to put on those students and their teachers. But, I could understand it if amongst the disabled student population were those with learning challenges who were otherwise physically functional (but then that requires more aides to have portions of the class doing different things at the same time).

IDK, it's a big challenge when one class is comprised of children have varying degrees and/or completely different disabilities. Lots of trade-offs have to be made for the good of the whole, same as with all classrooms where students' capacities and motivation levels differ substantially even without disabilities (especially under NCLB which can be viewed as catering to the lowest performers while holding others back). Teachers face a lot of barriers in the education system, but the good ones don't do only whatever's easiest to just get by whether they're teaching the gifted, average or disabled students.